Bruises
by FrostWing27
Summary: A Davekat story. Humanstuck, Schoolstuck, and Sadstuck. Rated T for abuse, swearing and mild romance activities. My first fanfic; hope you enjoy!
1. Hell Whole of a Home

**Hey, this is my first fanfic. This is only chapter one, but I hope you enjoy it!**

 **~Karkat POV~**

Purples, blacks, reds, blues, and finally tan are littered around your rib cage. Candy red lines run up and down your arms, straight lines that still sting slightly upon contact. This is just from lifting off your shirt. You sigh and throw the soaked bandages into the bath, letting the water run red. As you take off your sweats you double over in pain briefly, gasping as you accidentally hit one of the newer wounds. Possibly one from last night.

You look up into the bathroom mirror. Brown eyes stare back at you, dark bags hanging under them. Atop your head is your signature messy rat's nest, raven black strands sticking out every which way. The only thing that seems even relatively neat about your hair is the red streak running through the black just above your eyebrow. You make a half hearted attempt to comb it out with your fingers, succeeding a look that is at least slightly more presentable.

Reaching into the swinging cabinet behind the mirror, pulling out two rolls of fresh ace bandages and a bottle of concealer to match your white but slightly tanned skin tone. First you take the time to expertly wrap the wounds on your arms as you've done many times before. The binds you make end up slightly tighter than usual, but it doesn't hurt and it's better than loose, so you go with it. You slowly spread the makeup over your cheek, hiding the swelling bruise that has been slowly darkening during the night. There is still the slight, shadowy outline of the mark, but unless you look especially close or with care it isn't noticeable. No one has looked at you in such a way in years, anyways. After shutting off the water in the tub, you creep over to your room across the hall being careful to open and close each door as quietly as possible lest you wake _him._

In your closet is mostly the colors black and grey with splashes of red. The choice that has to be made concerning clothing today is in the same light that is has been for the past week; to cover up the arms and legs. You decide to go with a turtleneck, simply a solid grey made with some sort of thick, yarnish material perfect for the freezing late November weather. You pair this along with a pair of tight black skinny jeans.

Once again, you survey your appearance in the mirror on your wall. The turtleneck is extremely large on your too skinny figure, but it hides all of your currently existing wounds and scars, so it's fine. Some might say that a guy wearing skinny jeans is gay, but your'e pan anyways so fuck that.

You check the red striped, black bag sitting next to your bedroom door. You shuffle through the contents, hoping that everything you needed was there as it should have been, saving you from facing the man possibly downstairs. Extra bandages, some food, water, books. Damn it you still needed your gym shoes. They must have fallen out of your bag somewhere downstairs, as they are no where to be seen anywhere in your room. Fuck it, you can just run in your converse. Speaking of them, you grab the bright red shoes and slip them on, lacing them tight.

You look at the clock on your phone. Around 45 min. have passed, and it's already 6:00. School is about an hour away and starts at 7:15. You need to leave, but you also have to get past your adoptive father.

Opening the door as silently as you can, you walk across the hallway. You're only 5'9, so your footsteps aren't loud, but you still creep across the boards with care. In your situation, you can never be too careful.

When you reach the end of the stairs you peek around the corner to see a fully awake Drew (your adoptive father), drink in hand. You think that maybe you can slip out the back door, but as you turn to run he sees you and yells, "KARKAT YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!"

You already knew you were worthless.

You already knew no one cared.

You already knew no one liked you, wanted you, appreciated, respected or loved you.

He didn't have to remind you.

Every.

Single.

Day.

You try to make a break for it, but before you can even take another step towards escape, his meaty hand grasped your bony one and pulled you back with such force you had to hold your mouth closed to suppress a scream. He holds you by the high collar of your shirt, shaking you before pinning you against the wall so forcefully it causes the back of your skull to slam painfully on the hard structure. You could only hope that the neighboring apartment had heard, as he takes you by the shoulders and slams you to the ground.

"LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TALK MOTHERFUCKER!"

He looks at you in the eyes.

"DON'T FORGET WHO GOT YOU OUT OF THAT GOD DAMNED ORPHAN EDGE."

Drew turns away and staggers up the stairs, stumbling and mumbling slurred curses.

For a while you simply lay there on the ground, curled around yourself. After a moment you get up and walk to the bathroom, surveying the damage. You can feel a bump forming on the back of your head, but no blood. Good. More bruises will surely follow in multiple areas, but nothing now that is visible.

Satisfied with your recovery, you skip breakfast and open the door, grab your bag and walk into the world. You don't look back to the hell hole that you are forced to call home. You never do.


	2. Swimming in Hallways

**Hey, thanks for reading the second part of the story!**

 **I forgot this in the first chapter, but yeah all Homestuck characters and stuff belong to Hussie who stole my soul I am trash help.**

 **Also quick disclaimer; this chapter mentions misandrist and abuse due to gender, but I am not a misandrist or anything of the sort. I fully support men, woman, transgender, gender fluid etc. Thanks to Jane on the correction of misandrist.**

 **So yeah. Leave a review cause I'm an actual person and I'd love to know people are actually reading this, even if it's a bad one.**

 **Have a good morning/day/evening/night and enjoy!**

 **~Dave POV~**

"Dave! Dave get up!"

You open your eyes slightly, looking up to see a friendly face staring back at you. John Egbert is blurry in your vision as you have just woken up, but his square glasses are the same as they've always been.

Looking around, you notice that people are swarming in the area. You are on a bench, warmed from your body heat, and John is sitting next to you. Earlier this morning you had gotten to school early, and decided to wait on a bench for your best bro. You must have fallen asleep.

John giggles, grabbing your hand and dragging you into the school. He starts rambling on about some project that he finished, but you aren't really listening. Instead you try to get your bearings. The school clock says 7:03, so you still have a few minutes until the bell rings. Cars are piling up in the lanes, and teenagers of all different age, size and ethnicity are piling into the school yard. A couple guys are hanging round the entrance and there is a group of girls piled under the tall oak tree standing tall and strong farther out near the parking lot while other groups are scattered around the courtyard.

You nod to the group by the door as you pass, and you receive greeting from a few of the members. The only one that you actually recognise is that Equius kid, and only because it's well known around school that his family is well off. He's probably like, what, 15, and he has his own butler. Also, he was in your AP Music class.

Being swept along by the wave of people, John moves out of your sight with a quick wave goodbye, too small to stay by your side for long in the tsunami of teenagers. You, however, tower over most of the people surrounding you and move through it without losing direction. In means of genetics it only makes sense for you to be so tall, considering your bro's height. He stands at 6'11, and you are already at 6'9. Needless to say, low ceilings and doors are not exactly your forte.

Your first class is all the way across the school, but so is your locker so it's not too out of the way. The building's layout is really odd; they decided to not only put all of the lockers scattered around the school in bunches, but some of the classes that would normally be close, like dance and gym are put far away from each other.

Disregarding the bumping and shoving to get down the hall by others, you make your way to your locker. The school is huge, but so is the person count, so you have to share full-length lockers. You don't generally see or talk to your locker partner, but you do know that he looks like a gay hipster fish who has way too much time on his hands to mope and desperately hit on any loser he can find, in his league or not.

To be fully honest, you're kind of glad you don't see him a lot.

Spinning the lock, you open your locker and shove aside his violet jacket and stuff in your own red one, grabbing your math book and shutting it again. It's block schedule today, so you don't need the others. Today it's basically just calculus, gym, music and free periods. You make your way into the music class room, waving a quick hello to the Gamzee kid in the corner. He's pretty cool, you guess, but he's also high literally all the time on who knows what. Instead of taking one of the instruments off the wall like most of the people in the class do, you find an empty table in the corner next to an outlet and pull out your turntables from your bag. Plugging them in, you begin to play a recording you had made last night of a new rap.

Taking the raw rap, you begin to mess around with the sounds to back it up. Before even thinking about recording them along with it, you have to plan it out. Before long, you start to see other people come in. Your half sister, rose, walked in with her violin. Jade comes with her base, and the Equius kid you had seen near the door walks in and to take over the drum set. It's weird, he is sweating a lot for some reason even though last you had seen he had been calm, doing nothing but sitting against the frame of the doors.

The rest of class passes relatively quickly, music surrounding you not only from your headphones, but also from the class. When the bell rings, many people rush as quickly as possible to get out grabbing their bags and stumbling out the door, heading into the hall. You do much the same, swinging your bag over your shoulder. Algebra goes much the same way for you, passing relatively quickly as you daydream, not paying much attention to the teacher. You are generally pretty smart, school has always been an easy activity for you.

That is, until you get to the locker room.

Quick backstory: When you were little, you and your bro Dirk had lived with your parents. You had two mothers, and both were extreme misandrist, hating all men and boys. This meant that when you and Dirk were both born with testicals, it caused some problems.

They would abuse you both verbally and physically, calling you worthless, shooting names a you, cutting you, hitting you, beating you up. This wasn't how you and Bro thought all girls were, of course, but you wouldn't be surprised if it was at least partially in play for the fact that you were both gay.

As soon as Dirk had turned 18 and you were 12, he moved out and left you alone with your mothers. You know he would have taken you if he could have, but he had no house of his own and no stable job, living himself off of side jobs and friends apartments. Eventually, he got a steady job as a bartender, and saved up money to buy an apartment. Not too long after that, he had legal custody over you. You have been living with him ever since.

However, this doesn't mean that scars weren't littered around your body, and it also doesn't mean this isn't something you want to hide.

You had gotten a locker in the corner at the beginning of the year, away from most of the others, but it is still visible to a few of the less confident individuals who also wanted to hide from cruel eyes, so every day you would rush there painfully early and change as fast as you could before anyone else could see your skin. There were a few days that you couldn't get there fast enough, though; unfortunately, this was one of those days.

When you accessed the door to the locker room, there were already a few stragglers wandering around in varying levels of nakedness. To most insecure people this was close enough, but news spreads fast in this school and you didn't really want any rumors about the cool kid self harming, or worse, getting beat up by his brother. Dirk already felt bad enough for having to leave you alone with your moms for two years. He doesn't need people thinking that he went around beating you up as well; it would crush him.

You slip out of the room again unnoticed, taking the time to close the door with extra care so that it won't make noise and alert the others. Gym, you suppose, will just have to be skipped. Pushing through the heavy doors of the gymnasium, you look at the clock. Today just happens to have block classes as mentioned before, so you have a lot of time and nothing to do. Suddenly, a rumbling sound comes from your abdomen. Scratch any and all plans; food is now the number one top priority.

The halls are still swimming with people changing classes at this point, so you bump into a lot of people, although they all just get out of your way. Eventually you make your way to the door, but just as you're about to walk out, you feel the impact of another's body and see a small boy with short black hair wearing a turtleneck fall to the floor with a thud in front of you.

Refusing to lose your cool, you squat down next to him and offer him a hand. You can't see his face yet, but he swats your hand away and flips you off. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING ASSHOLE!" He looks at you as he says this, and when he does your eyes widen behind your dark aviators.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you may have just knocked over the most attractive man you have ever seen in your entire life.


	3. Powdered Lashes

**Hey! 3rd chapter so soon because of the reviews! You made me happy, which gives me motivation, so yeah. Depending on how lazy I get, you might even get another chapter later tonight or not, we'll see. Definitely soon, though! :)  
Anyways, sorry this one is a little bit shorter than the other ones. I really want to change it to Dave POV for the next part which means it needs to happen next chapter, so yeah, be excited for that I guess. **

**Reviews, follows, and favorites are nice as always.**

 **Have a good morning/day/evening/night, lovelies!**

 **~Karkat POV~**

You flip up your middle finger and look at the guy that's just knocked you over on the way out during the free period.

What.

A.

Fucking.

Grub.

Muffin.

Bulge.

Sucking.

Douche.

Face.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING ASSHOLE."

He looks at you with a poker face. Is he wearing sunglasses _inside?_ Gog, that's a whole new low, even for a so called "cool kid." And he's just sort of staring at you. What the actual fuck is his problem? He just knocked you onto the ground, could you at least get an apology or a hand getting up?

After a minute he seems to snap out of whatever trance he was having fixated on your face and offers you a hand. You take it, and he pulls you up with ease. "Whoa, dude, how much do you weigh, like 70 pounds?"

"FUCK OFF." You yell at him and throw his hand away from your own.

"Whoa, whoa, calm your shit. Look, I'm sorry I ran into you okay, here I'll buy you lunch if you don't mind McDonald's." You think about it for a second. First of all, this guy is sorta weird, he spent like 5 minutes staring at your face before he even seemed to register that you were there. Second of all- you know what, screw it. Free food wins every time.

"Sure, why the fuck not." He smiles and offers you his fist.

"No hard feelings, bro?" Oh my gog, this guy irritates you. You just met him, and nothing all day has gotten on your nerves more than him; and that's saying something. Still, you reluctantly tap your fist against his and accept the sort of apology.

You walk out of the school together and he leads you over to a red Jeep in relatively good shape. He unlocks the car with keys that he pulls out of his pocket, and you slide into the passenger seat. He clicks the keys into the ignition and starts to drive.

"So," He talks without taking his eyes off the road.

"What's your name, cutie." You can feel your face heat up, but look away and hope he doesn't see.

"Karkat Vantas." You can hear him hold back a laugh, and you turn to glare at him. This is a normal reaction for your unusual name, but you don't want to give him that satisfaction.

"You got a problem with that?"

"Not at all, Karkitty."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"

"Karkatkarkatkarkat yup definitely Karkat." You turn away, pouting, and you think you hear him giggle almost inaudibly. Out of nowhere, he honks the horn twice and says meow afterwards. Your face heats up with rage, but you decide to let this one go as he laughs at his own joke.

"What about you, smart ass. I suppose I could just call you dipshit. It suites you." He smirks at you.

"The name's Strider. Dave Strider." You smirk back. Before the conversation can continue further, you pull up in front of a Wendy's.

"I thought you said McDonald's." He shrugs.

"Closer," He states simply before slamming the door. You pull open your own and step out onto the black asphalt of the parking lot.

You look up. The sky is clouded, and it looks like it might snow sometime in the next hour or so. That Strider guy has his coat, but you just have your turtleneck. You thought you were just going to spend your free period at the cafe across the street from the school; it hadn't crossed your mind until now that you would need a jacket at all. You shiver and speed walk inside, hoping to avoid any further exposure to the cool temperatures.

Inside is warm, and the smell of food welcomes you. You breath in the air, suddenly very glad you accepted the offer.

"What do you want?" The Strider kid is looking at you expectantly.

"Just get me a hamburger and a coffee." You look back at him. The light gleams off his glasses and shoots out again, while the eyes behind them remain unseen. You still have no idea why he wears them, and you are about to as just as the line moves forward and he has to talk to the cashier lady to order.

You both get your food and walk over to a table for two by a window. You look out and see that your earlier prediction was right. There are soft, cold and white snowflakes delicately falling from the clouds. Dave must have followed your gaze, because he breathed out a sigh. "Wow." You look over at his face and see a look of excitement come over it. "What, it's like you've never seen snow before dumb ass!"

"I haven't."

"What the fuck? We live in Colorado, how can you not have seen snow before."

"I just transferred here this year. I used to live in Texas; not exactly the prime environment for snow." You just look at him.

"Let's go then."

"What?"

You pull on his hand, throwing your half-finished burger in the trash on your way out. You can feel him slightly resisting at first, but eventually he just goes along with you. You walk past the car and into the nearby park. He seems to marvel at the sky, white flakes falling down and hitting his skin. It's barely visible on his platinum blond hair, but it adds a sort of texture that makes it sparkle in the light. There are white spots on his glasses now, and white is littered in splotches on his bright red coat. He spins around, arms wide, as if taking the weather into a large embrace. He almost blends into the white background, his pale and stocky figure finding it's place standing a few feet away from you, looking back and smiling. You realize that your smiling as well.

It never occurred to you how beautiful he could be.

Shaking your head and still grinning, you bend down and gather up a ball of the white powder that has the Strider so enticed. Packing it together, you swing your arm back and throw. It hits his side, and he turns, shocked. "Ha!" You laugh at him. He bends down, trying to make a ball of snow, but he's not experienced in with it and fumbles, the ball crumbling in his fingers before he can compact it. This only makes you laugh more, and he smirks, then charges you.

Before you know it, you're in his arms and being carried toward a huge pile of snow from the streets being cleared. "NO NO FUCKING NO STRIDER DON'T-" Before you are able to finish the thought, he shoves you into the mountain of snow. You lay there for a minute, shocked as he laughs, and then begin to laugh with him. Before long, you're both shoving each other into the snow, making snow angles and failing at a snow man.

You haven't laughed or smiled this much in a while. And it feels… well, good.

After what seems like no time at all, you begin to shiver. You don't have a coat. Before the cold had seemed bearable, but now you're just completely miserable. "Strider let's go, I'm freezing." He looks you up and down before taking off his coat and wrapping it around you. It's still warm from his body, and it smells slightly like apples. You wrap it tighter around yourself, taking in the warmth and scent of the taller boy.

The two of you make your way back to the car. He unlocks it and you slide in, teeth still chattering. He cranks up the heater on high, and the two of you take some time to warm up before he drives off, the sky's powdered sugar still resting on your lashes.


	4. RomComs and Horror Movies Equals what?

**Two chapters in one day! I'm on a roll!**

 **Anyways, this is more fluff. From now on this is basically going to be drama, fluff, and sadstuck. Sorry, I don't do lemon if that's what you're looking for.**

 **Quick notice, the next chapter is gonna take longer than these past few have unless I post tomorrow; I'm taking a job for the weekdays for this week, then it's back to summer boredom... so yeah.**

 **Reviews/favorites/follows are lovely as always.**

 **Have a nice morning/day/evening/night you guys, and enjoy!**

 **~Dave POV~**

His laugh. His smile. His name, his complexion, his eyes, his hair, his everything. You couldn't stop thinking about Karkat Vantas, and it was amazing.

Even when you first bumped into him, you couldn't stop staring. He was breathtaking, his eyes were the purest shade of chocolate brown and the artificial light of the hallway gleamed in just the right way. You had realized he had been giving you a weird look and stopped staring, but wow, you were basically sold to that man the second you saw him.

And later, in the snow, after you had gotten over the initial shock of the weather, you looked to him and felt like you couldn't even function. The snow was littered over his turtleneck in delicate patterns and his eyes looked even lighter in the white light. He had his long sleeves pulled up over his fingers due to the cold, and he was smiling. It had lit up his whole face, his cheekbones prominent, and his hair had framed his face. The white snow had looked like it was dancing in his hair as he moved his head, and it'd shown up well against his raven black mane. His lashes were covered in white, sugary snow, and you'd noticed that when he laughed his eyes scrunched up in this cute way that made you smile.

Now, in your car, he's still slightly shivering, but not as much as he had been outside. His hands are positioned in his sleeves, and his eyelashes still have a thin coating of white on them. He is curled up, knees to his chest, and his arms are pressed up with them. His hands are clenched near rosy cheeks and feet are sitting on the seat. My coat is wrapped around him, and he pulls it tighter around him, snuggling into it.

You may be a cool kid, but it still takes all of your strength not to fangirl SO hard in this moment.

"So where are we going?" He looks at you and you blink.

"I don't know babe, where do you want to go?" You can see him blush even if it blends in quite a bit with his already red cheeks.

"Why don't we go somewhere warm. Possibly with hot chocolate. That stuff is always the best after snow." You inwardly smile. Cute. The drive doesn't seem to take long at all, and after an amount of time that doesn't seem long enough, you pull up in front of your apartment complex. He blinks at you.

"Strider," He pauses.

"What the fuck are we doing at what I assume is your house?" You hold up your hands.

"Just thought we could make hot chocolate like you said and watch some movies. I have some DVD's and Netflix. You can choose the first film if I get second pick."

He looks at you for a second before making a decision with a sigh.

"Fine." You smile, and pull open your door, swinging your body out. Karkat follows suit. The two of you walk up the stairs and into your small apartment. It's a two bedroom, two bath apartment with a kitchen and living room kind of squished into the same place. Your bedroom is down the hall along with your bro's, but he won't be home for quite a bit due to work, so you don't have to worry about him scaring Karkat for life with puppets or some shit.

Karkat sits on the couch as you walk over and grab the remote, turning the TV on. He rifles through the movie collection for a minute, but after apparently not finding anything worthwhile. "Netflix." You throw him the remote and sit next to him. The couch isn't all that large, just enough for two people, so you and him are almost touching, but not quite. You're glad your round aviators are large enough to hide the slight blush that you can feel heating your cheeks.

Before you know it, you hear music and look up at the TV. You didn't see what he picked, but you suppose you'll find out. The beginning of the movie rolls, and you kind of laugh as you realize what he has picked.

"What?" He looks at you with an almost pouty face, hinted with annoyance.

"Mean girls? Seriously?" He scoffs in offense that you can't categorize as sarcastic or serious with certainty and he punches you lightly in the arm. You double over your arm in pain dramatically, groaning in fake pain. He just punches you playfully again, and you laugh. When you look back up his eyes are trained on the television, but you can see a blush falling over his cheeks. With that, hot chocolate is forgotten and interest shoots upon Karkat's face.

The rest of the movie is rather uneventful for you, but not for Karkat. He gets totally into it, and his facial expressions are priceless. Instead of watching the movie, you find that you're more watching him. Before you know it the movie is over, and he's crying happy tears. You smile and reach around his shoulder pulling his head towards you and kissing his hair. Before he has time to react, you get up and pull a certain DVD from the stack, pushing it into the player. Pressing play, you sit back down on the couch and grab his hand.

Surprisingly, he doesn't protest. Instead, he interlocks his fingers with yours, and you can't help but smile.

The movie starts playing, and his eyes widen at the screen.

"YOU DID NOT JUST PUT IN THE EXORCIST." You smirk, giving his hand a little squeeze. Not half an hour into the movie, he's wrapped in your arms, eyes wide and shaking slightly. He's clutching your shirt, fingers digging into the fabric, and you have your chin rested on the top of his head. He squeaks, and you chuckle.

"You wanna change it?" He nods, eyes still glued to the screen, and you use the remote to change it to just regular old TV. He breathes a visible sigh of relief and although the movie is shut down, burrows farther into your lap.

"Hey Karkles?"

"Hmm?"

"Look at me." He turns around in your embrace, head tilted slightly up facing you. Before you can psych yourself out, you go for it. You push your face forward and your pale lips collide with soft ones. It feels so good to finally connect with him like this, and after getting over the initial shock, he kisses you back. In this moment, it's just you and him, connected and feeling and _alive._ You pull back, both of you taking a breath before you look back into his eyes.

"I know we met recently, but I really like you, and I was wondering if mayb-"

"Hell fucking yes I'll be your boyfriend."You smile and kiss him again, and you feel him smile back into the kiss. He wraps his arms around your neck and you slide yours up and down his back, eventually settling on his hips. The two of you make out for a while, only stopping to breath, before you finally break apart and smile at each other.

He settles back into your lap facing the TV and you set your head in the crook of his covered neck. You take in his scent, which is a subtle smell that you can't place. Maybe pomegranate? He's warm, and you find yourself dozing, eventually feeling the world fade away. Your last thought is simple, but comes with a great deal of meaning to you;

Thank gog I skipped gym class.


	5. Enough for You

**Ok, you think 4 chapters in 3 days is enough to hold you off for the next week?**

 **Again, I probably won't post until after Friday, so yeah, hopefully this makes up for that.**

 **I got in the sadstuck/drama in this chapter... After more fluff. Sorry, I just can't help myself!**

 **Reviews/favorites/follows are wonderful as always.**

 **Have a nice morning/day/evening/night, lovelies!**

 **~Karkat Pov~**

You wake up with something warm on your neck. Turning your head slightly, you recognize it as a Strider.

Your boyfriend.

You smile at that thought. Usually you aren't one to get into a relationship too fast, but even just in that one day, you couldn't get over his eyes, or his smile, or how he laughs, or how he can annoy you and make your heart melt _at the same time._ You shift his head off of yourself and onto the couch. He groans a bit, but doesn't wake. You slide out of his lap, sitting on the floor in front of him. Pulling back your bangs with a puff of breath, you look back at your sleeping partner.

His shades had slipped off his head sometime during his sleep, and now you can see a line of freckles under his eyes that his sunglasses had hidden before. His face is softer when he sleeps, unguarded, and his mouth is slightly open. His eyebrows are raised slightly almost giving him an expression of surprise, and his bangs fall across his face and slightly over one of his closed eyes in a graceful wave.

You smirk a little before putting the glasses back on his face. It just seemed like something he would want; you didn't know why. As you do, however, he snorts and wakes up. You smile.

"Morning."

"Hey Karkles." He pulls you into a hug, squeezing you before placing a small kiss on top of your head. You try to hide your blush, but fail miserably. He gets up, pulling you into his arms bridal style and begins to walk.

"HEY PUT ME DOWN DOUCHE FACE!" At this he only chuckles.

"What, I can't carry my princess?" He sticks out his lip in a fake pout. Your anger falls and you turn away from him, blushing even harder. He laughs, and proceeds to carry you into the kitchen. He drops you on the breakfast bar and turns to you, leaning on the adjacent counter.

"Welcome to el restaurante de Strider." He raises his eyebrows at you, and proceeds to open the fridge and cabinets.

"Here is the menu, along with driving to I Hop for pancakes or Dunkin Donuts for, well, donuts. What would you like to eat this morning, sir?" You tap your finger against your chin in mock thought, playing along.

"I'll take the muffins, but only if I get to help." He grins at you, leading you off the counter and gathering bowls, eggs, flour, etc. The two of you actually cook correctly for maybe 3 minutes.

He's stirring the dry ingredients while you're working on the wet ones, when he takes some of the flour out of the bowl and sprinkles it into your hair. You stop, surprised, before flinging back whatever excess food is on the spoon that you're using. Before long, the two of you are grabbing random items and flinging them at each other, only stopping when there isn't anything left to fling. Both of you are laughing, and you're doing so _so_ intensely that tears come to your eyes. You pull him into an embrace, your arms wrapping around his neck, his on your hips. He kisses you briefly before you pull back and peck him on the cheek.

"We need to clean." You look into his glasses and he pouts, but pulls away reluctantly and sighs.

"You can take a shower. I'll start on the mess, but it wasn't all that nice in the first place, so it shouldn't really matter anyways." He sighs, grumpily. You snort and roll your eyes before he takes your hand and leads you to the bathroom.

"Towels are in the cabinet and shampoo and shit is on the shelves in the shower." He tells you before closing the door lightly.

You pull of your sweater gingerly, surprised as it sticks slightly to your arms. You have just started bleeding through your bandages, and the inside of your sleeves are already sticky with blood. The shirt is still wearable, though, so you put it up onto the shower curtain rod to air out for a bit. You carefully unwrap the bandages and run the bad ones under the sink faucet. The water turns red under your fingers and you sigh, looking over the cuts on your arms.

One of them on your right forearm has started bleeding again, and you press your hand against it briefly. However, the pressure is applied in the wrong area and it only makes it bleed more. You sigh, holding your arm over the sink as to not drip blood over the bathroom tiles.

The rest of the lines on your skin are scars or scabs, so the blood shouldn't have gotten past your turtleneck. Relief washes over you quickly, and you take the bandages out of the water, patting them mostly dry with a towel and dabbing the cut on your arm before taking off the rest of your clothing and stepping into the shower.

Water running over your wounds you sigh yet again, letting the warm liquid relax your ever tense muscles and running a hand through your wet hair. Water splashes against the shower walls and you let your mind wander for the first time in a while.

That was a mistake.

Suddenly you find yourself thinking about your adoptive father. The parents you never got to meet. And Kankri. Kankri had been your older brother who had been with you at the orphanage. Your step father had adopted the two of you, but when he got abusive Kankri would protect you. He would try to reason with him, even beg, and when that still didn't work and Drew resorted to violence again, Kankri would always put himself before you. Unfortunately, his body wasn't as strong as his mind.

One night, when Drew had been exceptionally drunk, he had broken a bottle and charged at Kankri, stabbing him in the throat with the sharp ends and smashing it over his head, then leaving the house. He didn't come back for a week, and you were glad. A few minutes after he left, Kankri died. His windpipe hadn't been hit directly, but it was still enough damage to kill him slowly and painfully. He fell limp in your arms, and just before he did a single tear slipped down his face, joining with the pool of blood under him.

Suddenly, you can't stay in the water anymore. You turn it off, frantically drying yourself off and slipping on your pants before finding that your gagging, over the sink, and retching. You cough loudly and realize you're crying. Before you can register an opening door or anyone even coming into the room, there are arms around your aching chest and you're on the ground, crying even harder into someone's arms.

The memory of Kankri dying on the floor keeps flashing through your head and it's so intense that you can feel yourself convulsing with shaking breaths and sobs. Whoever's holding you just clutched your bare back, shushing you and patting at your head. Eventually the throbbing in your head slows and the memory fades into the background again. Tears still streaming down your face ,you look up to see a pair of shades staring back at you, concerned.

"I'm sor-"

"Shhh," Dave puts his finger to your lips and you just rest your head on his shoulder, leaning into his sturdy figure.

"We can talk later, just rest for now. Whatever that was it was pretty fucking intense, and you just need to calm down more ok?" You nod, closing your eyes and sighing.

Your hands clutch at his shirt and every breath you take is shaky, uncertain even. He crosses his head over your shoulder and leans into you as well, the two of you supporting each other.

For once in your life, you have someone helping you.

For once in your life, you have someone there for you.

For once in your life, you aren't alone…

And that's more than enough for you.


	6. Cloud Dandruff

**Hey guys! Sorry this took so long, as I said I had a week long job and we are also moving, so I've also been doing that.**

 **To Jane, yes I'm fine sweetie, this is just a sadstuck story. Sorry I couldn't reply sooner because you are a guest.**

 **Anyways, this chapter has some more sadstuck and drama mostly, I put like a tiny bit of fluff. Sorry it's so short, I'm trying to get to the next part of the story, and I try not to do large jump transitions.**

 **This is either the second to last or third to last chapter of this story, then I'll be starting a JohnDave fanfic, so follow along with my account. I don't think that one will have much sadstuck, but who knows.**

 **Reviews/favorites/follows are always appreciated.**

 **Have a lovely morning/day/evening/night, sweeties!**

 **~Dave POV~**

This wasn't exactly what you'd had in mind when you had brought Karkat over to your house. The night was perfect and the beginning of the morning, but now you were sitting on the floor with a half naked, dripping wet boyfriend crying in your arms. Not to mention, you have no idea why. You stand up, pulling him with you by the shoulders, and carry him into your room. Setting him onto the bed, you finally get a good look at him. There are cuts up and down his arms, one bleeding and others scabbed or scared. Bruises run up his chest and sides, the purples and blues flowing down onto his hips. Even possibly past them, but you can't tell due to his jeans.

You look him into the eyes, or as well as you can with your glasses still on. Whatever this kid has been through is a rough story, and his entire body seems battered. His face is washed by the shower water and you realize there's a large, almost black bruise on his cheek that must have been hidden away by makeup before.

"Oh my god Karkat I'm so sorry…" His only response is shaking his head. He's gone quiet now, head down so his bangs cover his hazel eyes. All you can think to do is pull him into another embrace, rocking him back and forth in your lap.

"What happened?"

He looks up at you now, tear stains mixing with the drops of shower water, and he sighs beginning in a hoarse voice.

"I have an adoptive father. His name is Drew, and well, he's not exactly the best father in the world. Actually, he's probably the fucking worst. Long story short, he abuses me to this day but he actually killed my brother when he was protecting me,and I was thinking and I saw him dying again, and oh god I just-" A sob breaks through his speech and you rock him back and forth again, shushing him and patting him on the back. You pause for a moment before speaking yourself.

"When I was little I had two mothers. They were both misandrists, and so when me and my brother were both born boys, they didn't take to it well." You pull back just enough to slip off your own shirt, revealing your own scars, although none are recent. He gasps and stares a your chest before you continue. "My bro got out as soon as he could, but it was a while until he actually was able to get custody of me, so I took the brunt of it. But Karkat, just … it's ok, I know the feeling is my point, I guess."

He looks into your eyes for a moment and you wonder what he'll say before he kisses you, his own lips pressing against yours. You kiss back after a moment, initially surprised, but also relieved. It at least means that he's at least a bit closer to okay then he was just a moment ago. The kiss lasts for a while, but eventually he pulls away and gives a shaky laugh.

"I love you, asshole."

"I love you too babe."

"Hey bro,"

You both look to the doorway, you calmly and Karkat frantically.

"You left a huge fucking mess in the kitchen."

"Yes, I am aware of that."

"Clean it up when you get done fucking him."

"Okay." Karkat blushes furiously at this and hits you lightly. You laugh, lifting him off your lap and standing up. He stands beside you and you walk past bro, leading him down the stairs. Before walking out, Karkat grabs one of your shirts and puts it on. It's way too huge on him due to the difference in height, so it hangs off his skinny figure with a lot of room to spare. It's the most fucking adorable thing you have ever seen.

You smile and turn around, hopping down the stairs and gathering your keys, jacket, and shoes before throwing him a hoodie and his own converse.

"Dave, where the fuck are you taking me."

"Where do you live?"

"Take a right, another right, go around the traffic circle and straight until you hit a left. It's the first house on the corner. Why, are you taking me back?" You don't respond, but instead grab his hand and pull him out to the car. You each get into the red jeep and you start to drive, following the directions he's previously given you.

Neither of you talk on the way there, but the silence is somehow comforting. Snow is falling again and you still marvel in some awe. It's like the clouds have really awful dandruff.

You're not very good at metaphors.

Eventually you pull up to his house and before he can get out you do, breath visible as it meets the cold air. He gives you a questioning look.

"Uh, Dave? Why are you getting out?" You look at him seriously and reply,

"You're not going back. I'm getting your stuff." He blinks at first, shocked, and then grins widely and runs into your arms.

"Thankyouthankouthanyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!" You can only smile back, watching the cold cloud dandruff fall from the sky in flakes of is turning out right. He's going to be okay, you're going to take care of him, the two of you will be fine. But still, at the back of your mind you keep thinking; Why wasn't I there for you before?


	7. Purples,Blacks,Reds,Blues and Tan

**OH MY GOD LAST CHAPTER AHHHHH**

 **Sorry this is so short, I just had it at the perfect place to end and I was like Ill just end it here then.**

 **Next story is a JohnDave. I will either get the first chapter out today or sometime this week, so keep yourselves updates. That's all I really have to say today. :)**

 **Reviews/follows/favorites are always cool.**

 **Have a nice morning/day/evening/night, lovelies!**

 **~Karkat POV~**

Your life is finally coming together.

After years of fighting, struggling, hurting, anger, and defeat, you are finally settling with the feeling of _safe._

You walk down the stairs out of the bedroom you share with Dave to see him cooking eggs in the kitchen. You smile and sneak up behind him, wrapping your arms around him from behind and nuzzling your face into his back. You can't see it, but you're positive that he smiles. He continues to work and the two of you sway back and forth, rocking while you look out the closed window and into the morning light.

The clouds are gone but there's still snow on the ground and in the branches of the trees. The icicles that hang from the window drip slightly, and the cold air is almost visable just by looking. Actually, it's more like a feeling that you get when the world is white; cold. You can also see Dave's bro outside shoveling the driveway, making room for people to walk and cars to come in.

You and Dave eat on the couch in front of the TV, watching a movie that you don't necessarily like, but Dave loves so you sit there anyways. Afterwards you both go up to the room and he checked out you wounds yet again.

The cut on your arm that had been bleeding recently had stopped, but it was still red and irritated. The bruises on your chest hadn't gotten any better, and your legs are littered with them as well. Many of the cuts on your lower half are still scabbed but had scarred or healed in other places. The bruise on your cheek had been iced, but it's still pretty prominent and would have to be covered again on Monday.

As he looks you over it almost frustrates you that you can't tell what he is thinking. He has his usual pokerface on, but you would know exactly what he's thinking if he would just take off his glasses. You still don't know why he has them or why he puts them on all the time, and now he knows all your secrets. Shouldn't you have the obligation to know his at this point?

"Dave." He looks up at you, straying from your right leg.

"Hmm?"

"What's up with the glasses?" Dave visibly stiffens, and looks down briefly. You put your hand under his chin to make him look back at you and he abides without much resistance. Slowly, so he can pull away if he wants to, you slip off his aviators and look into his actual eyes.

They're red.

Like, fucking candy red.

He looks scared for about 2 seconds before you grin ear to ear and kiss him. He is surprised at first but kisses back after a moment before you pull back to look at him again.

"You know I like red, I even have in my hair. What are you so afraid for?" He smiles at you, and for once you can actually see the relief, the love, and the trust that set in his eyes.

He kisses you again and you lean into it, tongues intertwining. It's like the entire world is right, you and him, sitting in your room and his room, together.

He loves you.

You love him.

Now the purples, blacks, reds blues and tan that litter your body are accepted by him; and that's all you could ever ask for.


End file.
